El Modena family learns about father's segregation struggle

Jan. 15, 2014

Updated Jan. 17, 2014 5:49 a.m.

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Phyllis Ramirez Zepeda, left, proudly holds a photograph of her father Lorenzo Ramirez as friends Rudy Diaz, center, and Sammy Rodriguez, right, visit the the El Modena High School library named after Lorenzo Ramirez. Diaz and Rodriguez are instrumental in the effort to get Rancho Santiago College named after Lorenzo Ramirez who was one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al desegregation case. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Silvino "Jim" Ramirez, of Riverside, is one of the children of Lorenzo Ramirez, one of the several plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al desegregation case. He is working to rename the library at Rancho Santiago College in his father's honor. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The children of Lorenzo Ramirez, pictured, are Silvino "Jim" Ramirez from left, Teresita Ramirez, Phyllis Ramirez Zepeda and Mike Ramirez, as well as Rudy Diaz and Sammy Rodriguez. Diaz and Rodriguez are instrumental in lobbying for library at Rancho Santiago College to be renamed in Lorenzo Ramirez's honor. The school Library at El Modena High School, where they are standing, has already been named after Lorenzo Ramirez. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Phyllis Ramirez Zepeda hangs a portrait of her father Lorenzo Ramirez in a display case she arranged inside the El Modena High School library in Orange. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Silvino Ramirez, left, and Mike Ramirez, right, describe photos in a poster about their father Lorenzo Ramirez, one of the several plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al desegregation case. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Phyllis Ramirez, right, pretends to unveil the Lorenzo A. Ramirez library at El Modena High School in Orange. Her sister Teresita Ramirez stands at left. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A Mexican consulate ID photo of Lorenzo Ramirez, one of the several plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al desegregation case. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A historical 1950s photo shows El Modena Elementary School which previously consisted of two segregated schools. The school on left was Lincoln Elementary, where the Latino kids attended and the school on the right was Roosevelt Elementary School, where white children attended prior to 1948. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Silvino "Jim" Ramirez points to himself in a photo taken in 1948 after the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al finalized in the Court of Appeals in 1947. He is pictured with his class of all Latino students at Lincoln Elementary School. Moments later, the white kids were later paraded in and photographed with the Latino kids. "They wanted to show that we were desegregated - but we were not." said Ramirez. The El Modena school district was later forced to desegregate. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Phyllis Ramirez Zepeda, left, proudly holds a photograph of her father Lorenzo Ramirez as friends Rudy Diaz, center, and Sammy Rodriguez, right, visit the the El Modena High School library named after Lorenzo Ramirez. Diaz and Rodriguez are instrumental in the effort to get Rancho Santiago College named after Lorenzo Ramirez who was one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez, et al v. Westminster et al desegregation case. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Mendez, et al v. Westminster

1944-46: Five Orange County families sue school districts in El Modena (now part of Orange), Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Westminster because their children are turned away from the districts' all-white schools. The suits filed by the Mendez, Ramirez, Guzman, Palomino and Estrada clans are later combined into one case, Mendez, et al v. Westminster.

1947: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Mendez, et al case orders an end to segregation in California schools. After the ruling, Gov. Earl Warren moves to desegregate all public schools and other public spaces.

1954: The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall cites the Mendez case. Former Gov. Warren is chief justice on the court.

2007: The U.S. Postal Service unveils a stamp commemorating the 60th anniversary of the case.

2011: Silvia Mendez receives Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama for her work in teaching students about the case.

2012: El Modena High School names its library the Lorenzo A. Ramirez Library and adds a display chronicling the case.

Source: Register archives

For more online, see the Ramirez family's website at mendezetalvwestminster.com.

ORANGE - Lorenzo Ramirez could not accept that his children had to attend racially segregated schools when he moved his family in the 1940s into the El Modena School District.

The district was among several across California that had separate schools for white and Latino students. Ramirez, a labor leader, saw the segregation as an injustice to all children and sued.

His case eventually was combined with suits brought by four other families in Orange County in the landmark case Mendez, et al v. Westminster. The 1947 suit, with plaintiffs from Santa Ana, Garden Grove, El Modena and Westminster, ended segregation in California – seven years before the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education banned the practice nationally.

“Lorenzo Ramirez was a very strong-minded man,” said his daughter, Phyllis Ramirez Zepeda, who now lives in Whittier. “He knew an inequality when he saw it, and he refused to just stand by.”

The daughter and her siblings have spent much of the past decade working to promote their father's involvement in the case. They succeeded two years ago in convincing school leaders to name the library at El Modena High School after their father, who died in 1966, and are lobbying Santiago Canyon College trustees to name that campus' library after Lorenzo Ramirez.

“It's important for people to know the importance of this case and our father's involvement in it,” said Ramirez Zepeda, 71. “When people talk about the case, they often focus on the Mendez family since their name is attached to the suit. But there were four other families who were involved also.”

Ramirez, his wife, Josefina, and their children moved in 1944 from Whittier to the El Modena neighborhood, in what is now eastern Orange.

The father served as a ranch laborer who worked with local ranch owners to bring in Mexican laborers as part of the government-backed bracero program.

Ramirez was shocked when he went to enroll his three children – Ignacio, Silvino and Jose – in elementary school and was told that they had to go to the “Mexican school.” (The El Modena district later became part of the Orange Unified School District.)

Two schools served children of the community: Roosevelt was for white students and Lincoln was for Latinos. The schools were separated by the length of a football field.

Silvino “Jim” Ramirez, now 79, was enrolled at Lincoln as a fourth-grader.

“I remember that I didn't fit in because I spoke English already after attending integrated schools in Whittier,” he said. “The boys always tried to beat me up. But I couldn't go to the white school because they told me I didn't belong there, either.”

None of the children knew about their father's involvement in the lawsuit at the time. He never spoke about it, even when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the historic ruling.

Ramirez and his wife had 11 children in all. It wasn't until their father's death that details of his role in the case began trickling out.

“He wasn't a boastful man,” Ramirez Zepeda said. “He didn't think he needed to celebrate the ruling. He just went on with his business.”

Today, the Ramirez siblings live across Southern California.

Mike Ramirez, 59, said that working to preserve their father's legacy has kept them connected. The siblings continue to comb through court documents, pictures and other materials to build a website dedicated to the case.

Their effort has led trustees at Santiago Canyon College to say they will consider naming the library after Lorenzo Ramirez.

“This won't be just about my father,” Mike Ramirez said. “The goal is to have people better understand this case. We want them to learn about all five families that helped end segregation in California.”

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